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CAGW Submits Comments to NTIA on Consumer Privacy

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) President Tom Schatz submitted
recommendations to the National Telecommunications Information
Administration in the Department of Commerce on ways to advance consumer
privacy while ensuring continued prosperity and innovation.

These recommendations were in response to the Request for Comments on
Developing the Administration's Approach to Consumer Privacy (Docket
Number: 180821780-8780-01).

The comments read, in part:

"Policymakers and individual Americans have become increasingly
concerned about the amount of personal information held by online
platforms, e-commerce sites, internet service providers (ISPs), banking
institutions, retailers and many others, and how such information is
being used for data analytics, online advertising, and targeted
messaging without adequate transparency or consumer choice by social
media companies and online search engines. This concern was underscored
after the 2016 elections when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica
used ill-gotten personal data for targeted political ads."

"On June 28, 2018, the California Consumer Privacy Act was signed into
law by Governor Jerry Brown. The bill, which wa rushed through the
legislature in a few days, imposes extremely onerous requirements on how
companies must store and provide access to consumers' personal
information, as well as harsh restrictions on the types of product and
service options and discounts companies may offer to their customers.
Other states have enacted or are reviewing laws that would purportedly
protect personal information, covering issues such as children's online
privacy, website privacy policies, and monitoring employee e-mail
communications. There is an overriding concern that without the adoption
of a consistent national privacy protection regime that preempts state
and local laws, more states will follow California's example, further
complicating the privacy regulatory environment that companies, large
and small, must negotiate."

CAGW offered recommendations in the following areas of consumer-based
privacy: